Opposition Party?

[Secesh]

Can anyone give me some info and background on the Opposition Party and what they were about?

I notice in the list of members of the U.S. Congress of 1859-1860 many listed as "Opposition Party". These members are from states in the north as well as south, and during the war some served in the CSA and some served in the USA.

Any info appreciated; thanks!

[ole]

Good question, Secesh.

I'll wait with you for the answers. Somebody knows -- you can bank on that -- and will satisfy both our curiosities.

Ole

[ewc]

Secesh- Where did you find the list of members of Congress of which you speak?

[cedarstripper]

Originally Posted by Secesh

Can anyone give me some info and background on the Opposition Party and what they were about?

From what I read, the Opposition Party saw the agitation over slavery as a poison pill to national politics and thought it paramount to remove it from those poitics and return it to its only proper place - the states. I found this in an issue of the Staunton Spectator, March 6, 1860: http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/Browser1/aubrowser/ssmar60.html#3.6a



and here is the last paragraph, which pretty well summarizes it up. Hope it helps:

"But, however earnestly we hope for these results, however strongly we think the general welfare demands them, however confidently we believe them to be within the reach of the people, we are forced to confess that we anticipate none of them from the success of either of the parties now struggling for power; with the Republicans, we would not feel that the Union will be safe, and with the Democracy, the baneful sectional strife would rage with fresh vigor.--The only safety is to be found in the success of a party inaugurated upon the basis of the Union, the Constitution, pledged to suppress the agitation of slavery, to expel it from Federal legislation, and to discard it absolutely as a political issue; pledge to respect the Constitution and to observe the rights of the States; pledged to administer the powers of government as sacred trusts, and guard them from abuse; pledged, within the just limits of the granted powers, to encourage and protect the great interests of the country without respect to the latitude in which they spring; pledged to restrain the encroachments of the executive power; pledged to economy and reform of abuses; pledged to purge the departments of those corruptions that deform and disgrace them; pledged to redeem the country from that base and corrupt practice that deals with the emoluments of office as the spoils of victory; and, in a word, pledged to administer the government in the spirit of the Constitution, and with a view to the preservation of the Union."

Cedar